I think it comes down to fundamental survival in Africa still. Valuable resources mean the very few get rich and the rest are left to squabble and fight to survive.

You should watch the doc man.

To summarize (and grossly oversimplify) if you have spend a whole lot of your day gathering food you dont have time to invent shit.

Gold, diamonds, oil and uranium are great after you have advanced far enough to enjoy them but at the beginning stages you want wheat or rice so that you have food to eat.

Strong agricultural allows for specialization. EG. no wants to be a doctor if they also have to go out everyday to gather food. You want one person (the farmer) in that society getting the food ready to exchange with others for their specialized services.

I was too lazy to read the book
but i found the documentary extremely informative and entertaining.

I never realized before that agriculture and climate were the reasons that europe colonized africa and not the other way around.

and the livestock was the main advantage of europe over the new world, and why europe colonized the new world and not the other way around.

Yezzir. Few ppl know cows were essentially the secret to European domination. Sounds silly but its true. Even just living among cows and their feces made the white man resistant to germs that practically killed them Injuns in the new world on contact.

Cows got everything a nikka need to dominate. Meat, milk, and hide. Mufukkaz in the rest of the world were straight chasin rabbits around

Heres to cows:

And of course Eurasia being latitudinal while Africa and the Americas are longitudinal.

I guess it'll take another 100 or 200 years but hopefully enough interacial shexin goes on and the world becomes much more global policy based. It's ridiculous that any one set of people/one area of the world should be so much better off than others. I guess equality is not the way of man though..stepping on the weak is. Maybe it's why we survived and thrived..but it might also be why we can only get to a certain level of good. There is a lot more apathy than there is proactive help.

Whatever the era in the last 500 years, they were riding b*tch the whole way, never driving, never even a spell riding shotgun.

Too far gone to play catch up.

The only chance is for them to control their resources and harness their human resources like China did, but with poor planning and pathetic central control it will just continue to be a shit show and a burden till eternity.

Sad reality, so much potential lost, but there is too much ground to gain.

Some really good insights in this thread. Colonialism obviously played a huge role; raping their lands, dividing their people by preferring one tribe over others creating wealth inequality, and then geographically dividing their countries without much concern for which tribes fell where. Then the Neocolonialism these days doesn't exactly help. It's cheaper for the world powers but potentially just as damaging for the people. But there's always been more to it than that. I can't wait to get home and watch that documentary.

Some really good insights in this thread. Colonialism obviously played a huge role; raping their lands, dividing their people by preferring one tribe over others creating wealth inequality, and then geographically dividing their countries without much concern for which tribes fell where. Then the Neocolonialism these days doesn't exactly help. It's cheaper for the world powers but potentially just as damaging for the people. But there's always been more to it than that. I can't wait to get home and watch that documentary.

EDIT: Just realized that's a book too. Ordering it now.

yeah but colonialism occurred all over the world, not just africa. some sectors of India are booming, Vietnam has started to turn the corner, and there many more similar stories. I think a big factor is the tribalism and warlords and how fractured and corrupt the governments are. not to say india, china, vietnam etc aren't corrupt as well, but they still have a strong hand in guiding their countries .

Some really good insights in this thread. Colonialism obviously played a huge role; raping their lands, dividing their people by preferring one tribe over others creating wealth inequality, and then geographically dividing their countries without much concern for which tribes fell where. Then the Neocolonialism these days doesn't exactly help. It's cheaper for the world powers but potentially just as damaging for the people. But there's always been more to it than that. I can't wait to get home and watch that documentary.

EDIT: Just realized that's a book too. Ordering it now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdreason

Because Europeans already raped the continent long ago. Now the economic rape is focused on the United States (see Fed Reserve).

True but guns germs and steel, asks the question why did europe colonize africa and not the other way around.

The answer is europe had superior agricultural output, and better climate conducive to farming. It all starts there for the advantage europe had that eventually allowed them to dominate the african continent and not the otherway around.

True but guns germs and steel, asks the question why did europe colonize africa and not the other way around.

The answer is europe had superior agricultural output, and better climate conducive to farming. It all starts there for the advantage europe had that eventually allowed them to dominate the african continent and not the otherway around.

i seem to recall reading something about how africa once had far superior civilizations but those died out once the climate changed.